


In Sickness and In Health

by LadyBelz



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Language, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-27
Updated: 2012-08-27
Packaged: 2017-11-13 00:06:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/497179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBelz/pseuds/LadyBelz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Summary:</b> He promised to stay by his side, to love honor and obey, in sickness and in health, till death do they part. And he always keeps his promises.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part I: In Sickness...

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
>  **Challenge:** Written for [Livejournal's HD_HurtComfort Community](http://community.livejournal.com/hd_hurtcomfort/2508.html).  
>  **Author's Note:** The disease mentioned here is very real. Please realize that an illness of any kind is nothing to laugh at and that there are people in the world everyday who suffer from such illnesses. It was never my intention to poke fun at them and I hope you do the same. **THIS IS NOT A DEATHFIC!** I've killed Harry once before in a story and it broke my heart. I refuse to do it again.

_Not too long now! Just a little bit more...come on...come on..._ Harry chanted over and over in his head as he followed the Snitch down toward the ground. It was his last match in his 14-year career as the Seeker for the Falmouth Falcons. He and his husband had talked it over and in the end, Harry decided he just didn't have the energy to be a seeker anymore and had announced his retirement shortly after the All-Star Match three months before.

The Snitch was just inches away and he released one hand from his broom, just as it began to tremble violently.

_What the hell?_ he gaped. He clenched his fist, hard, to try and quell it and it seemed to work. He reached out for the Snitch again, the tips of his fingers brushing the rapidly moving wings. He lunged quickly, cupping the Snitch in his hands just as his team scored a point.

_**"And the Falcons win the Cup!"**_ came the announcement not a second later. Harry closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. He'd done it. His team had won and he was ending his career on a high note.

**_"We would like to take the time to say Goodbye and Good Luck to Falcons Seeker, Harry Potter, who announced his retirement from the sport. Thank you, Harry for the years of loyalty and friendship you've given your fans, friends and team mates, and we wish you all the best in whatever you do in the future! We'll miss you!"_** Harry opened his eyes and saw every fan, all his team mates, and members of the opposing team on their feet and their brooms applauding and cheering for him. He smiled and waved at them all, stopping to blow a kiss to his husband waiting in the stands.

He joined his team mates on the ground for the Cup presentation before heading for the showers. No one noticed that his fist was clenched at his side, trembling.

Once alone in the showers, he relaxed his hand and watched as his whole arm trembled violently. He suddenly became worried.

"What's wrong with me?" he muttered to himself.

\- - -

By the time he was showered and changed, the trembling had stopped and he breathed a sigh of relief. He collected his things and made his way outside. He felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist and a kiss planted to the back of his neck and he smiled.

"Careful, mate. My husband might take offense to total strangers molesting me." he teased.

"Well then let's give the bloke something to be really offended about." came the amused reply. Harry turned and wrapped his arms around the man in front of him, sinking into the delicious kiss. He pulled back and stared into the loving gray eyes of his husband, Draco Malfoy.

"Ready to go? Ron, Pansy, Hermione and Vince are coming for dinner tonight." Draco asked. Harry took one final look around the place that had been a third home to him and nodded.

"I've been ready for a very long time."

"Not going to miss it?"

"I'll miss it a bit, but that part of my life is definitely over. Now I want to concentrate on us and our family." Harry smiled. He looked around. "Speaking of which, where's Tristan and Iliana?"

"Dobby took them home already to help with dinner."

"Then why are we still here?" Harry wondered. Draco grinned, wrapped his arms around his husband and Apparated them home.

\- - -

_-CRASH!-_

This was the sound that startled Draco less than a week later. He bolted from the bedroom, where he had been helping Dobby fold laundry. He met his two eldest children, Cedric and James who were home from Hogwarts for Easter break.

"Father, what was that?" James asked.

"I don't know. Sounded like it came from the study."

"Isn't Dad in there?" Cedric wondered.

"Father, something's wrong with Daddy!" came the anguished cry of his third child, Iliana. The three males quickly ran down the stairs and into the study. The first thing Draco saw were Tristan and Iliana, standing in one corner of the room, their arms around each other in fright. They were staring at something behind them. Quickly turning on his heel, Draco choked back a sob. Harry was laying on the floor, curled into the fetal position, an overturned coffee mug on the floor beside him.

"Harry!" Draco exclaimed, running to his side. Later he would care that cold coffee was seeping into the knee of his expensive pants, but at the moment his total focus was his husband on the floor.

"Draco." Harry painfully moaned.

"What's wrong?"

"It hurts." Harry whispered, tears in his eyes. Draco knew it was bad then. Harry had undergone six bouts of Cruciatus during the war with Voldemort without complaint. And the one and only time Draco had ever seen Harry cry was Fourth year at the end of the Triwizard tournament. This was definitely bad. He turned to look at his children.

"Cedric. Go to the floo and calmly ask Madame Pomfrey and Severus to come as quick as they can. Then floo Hermione and Vince, Ron and Pansy. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes, Father." Cedric went to do as he was told.

"James, take your brother and sister into the kitchen and have Dobby give them some hot chocolate with exactly three drops of Calming Draught then take them to their room to play."

"Yes, sir." James nodded. He quickly gathered Tristan and Iliana and left the room. Draco turned back to his husband who was silently crying, his eyes clenched tightly closed.

"Harry?" Draco whispered. Harry opened his eyes and looked at him, his eyes full of the pain he was feeling. "I need you to tell me where it hurts. We should be ready when Severus and Poppy get here. Can you do that for me, love?"

"My stomach. It hurts so badly, Draco. Please make it stop!"

"All right, baby. Shhh. Hush now. Help is coming." Draco told him, fighting back his own tears. "Can you tell me anything else that hurts?"

"Please make it stop!" Harry cried, lost in a haze of pain. Draco bit his lip to keep himself from crying. At that moment, Severus and Poppy, followed by Hermione, Pansy, Ron, Vincent and Cedric came into the room. Severus gripped Draco by the shoulders and pulled him back.

"Let Poppy work, Draco." the man whispered into his ear. Draco nodded, swallowing past the lump in his throat. They watched as Poppy force-fed Harry three different potions, which promptly came back up. Draco wanted to go to him, but Severus held him in place. Cedric stood at his side and they held onto each other. Poppy gave him a different potion and it seemed to work as Harry slowly relaxed and dropped off to sleep.

"Draco, can you take him upstairs, please. I think he'll rest better in his bed." Poppy asked.

"What's wrong with him?" Draco asked.

"Put him to bed first, then we'll talk." she replied. Draco nodded and levitated Harry from the room. Cedric went up ahead of him to make sure his youngest children didn't see their dad and for that Draco was grateful.

He stared down at the sleeping man, silent tears flowing down his cheeks. An arm went around his shoulders and he looked up into the green eyes of his eldest son.

"I'll stay with him, Father." Cedric whispered. Draco moved to deny his request but saw the naked fear in his son's eyes and nodded. Cedric moved to the bed and lay next to his dad, wrapping an arm about his waist like he used to do when he was a child. Draco bit back a sob and quickly left the room.

He stopped in the bathroom to wash his face before joining the rest of his family in the den.

_TBC in Part II..._


	2. Part II: ...And In Health

Harry stared at the words he was reading in the pamphlet a nurse had given him, eyes wide with shock.

_Wilson's Disease is a genetic disorder that is fatal unless detected and treated before serious illness from copper poisoning develops. Wilson's Disease affects approximately one in 30,000 people worldwide. The genetic defect causes excessive copper accumulation in the liver or brain._

When he had finally regained consciousness the month before, Draco was at his side in an instant, telling him he would find the best healers in the world to help him. He recalled the whole scenario as if it just happened yesterday...

_**-Flashback-** _

_Harry's mind slowly swam back into the here and now and he became aware of familiar voices speaking to each other over his head._

_"...because he's a wizard, which is why this remained undetected for so long. If he'd been an ordinary muggle, he would have been dead by now." came Hermione's unmistakable voice in 'lecture mode'._

_"That still doesn't explain why this chose to manifest itself now." he heard Draco wonder._

_"I don't know, Draco. But Blaise and I are going to do everything possible to see that he gets better. He beat Voldemort for crying out loud. I don't think he'll mind this."_

_"Well that's a stupid thing to say, Hermione Jane!" Draco snapped._

_"I'm sorry, Draco, I didn't mean like that sounded. What I meant was this is just something ordinary. No one is out to kill him or make his life a living hell."_

_"Not helping, love." Vincent stated beside her. Harry cracked an eye open to see Hermione blush and mumble more apologies to Draco._

_"Well I don't quite know how else to explain it." she sighed. Draco chuckled then, a low sound that made Harry want to smile, but he was still floating on a sea of pain-relieving potions. The door opened and Poppy and Severus entered the room. Poppy had her wand in her hand and was waving it before she had even reached his side._

_"I see you've been awake for some time, Harry. How do you feel?" she asked, causing the others in the room to start with surprise. Draco looked down at Harry._

_"I feel like something Buckbeak caught crawled into my mouth." he replied, opening his eyes fully._

_"A little sip of pumpkin juice is what the Mediwitch ordered, I think." she smiled, handing him a glass. Draco helped him to sit up and Harry became aware of aching muscles. He took a few sips of his juice and smiled when he felt a muscle relaxant take hold._

_"You know me so well, Poppy."_

_"I've been your Healer since the day you entered Hogwarts, Harry. There's nothing I don't know about you that you don't know yourself." she smiled warmly. He leaned back against Draco's chest and smiled when Draco pressed a chaste kiss to the back of his head._

_There was an uncomfortable silence._

_"So...what's wrong with me now?" he finally asked. Draco's hold on him tightened for a moment and Harry became worried. He looked around the room at his family and friends, but no one would meet his eye...save one. He started into the dark depths before him, seeing the worry and determination within them._

_"Severus?" Harry asked._

_"Harry...have you ever gotten a complete family medical history done?" the man asked._

_"No. What's that?"_

_"It's a complete record of any and all genetic disorders that may occur in a particular family." Hermione replied. "For example, I have to be tested every year for cervical cancer because all the females on my dad's side of his family have had some form of it in their lives. At least three of them have died from it."_

_"All the men in my family have severe allergic reactions to unicorn hairs." Vincent stated._

_"My nose is the result of a curse placed upon the patriarch of the Prince family by a witch my great-great grandfather slighted because he wanted to marry someone else and keep her as his mistress." Severus stated, glaring at both Draco and Vince when they snickered._

_"What's this got to do with me?" Harry asked._

_"It seems someone, possibly even your father, carried a recessive genetic disorder that appears once in a lifetime. You have what is called 'Wilson's Disease'. Because of your wizard status, it incubated in your body for quite some time and is just now starting to manifest."_

_Harry sat there in absolute shock._

_"Will it kill me?" he finally asked._

_"There isn't much known about it in our world." Draco finally spoke. Harry turned to look at him._

_"Well who would know? I'd like to know if I'm going to die or not." He was beginning to panic. "Voldemort couldn't kill me but some unknown disease will? How fucking ironic!" Draco placed his palms against Harry's cheeks and kissed him gently._

_"We'll find the best for you, love. I won't let you go without a fight." Draco promised. "The children need you and I need you. We're not giving up on you so don't you fucking dare give up on us."_

_Harry stared at him for a few moments before he smiled._

_"When did you get so forceful?"_

_"I married the Defeater of Voldemort, you git." Draco laughed. Harry kissed him then, not caring there were other people in the room._

_**-End Flashback-** _

As promised, Draco, Severus, Poppy and Hermione started calling around, looking for the foremost expert on Wilson's, a search that took nearly two months before Poppy finally received a call from a hospital in Vienna, Austria. Harry and Draco had taken a muggle plane the very next day, not trusting magical means of transport without knowing how it would affect the disease.

They had been shuffled into a private lounge the moment they arrived and were waiting for the arrival of the doctor.

A moment later, a small, rotund woman, who reminded Harry vaguely of Professor Sprout, entered the room, writing something down in a file she was carrying. She smiled at them both before taking a seat behind the only desk in the room.

"Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy, a pleasure to meet you." she smiled at the two wizards, her German accent on the heavy side.

"Excuse me, who are you?" Draco wondered.

"Ah, forgive me. I am Doctor Wilhelmina von Schmidt. I am the leading expert on that pesky disease that Mr Potter now has. Didn't you see my name in the pamphlet?"

Harry looked down at the paper in his hand and saw the doctor's name in small print in the lower right hand corner.

"Sorry." Harry grinned. She waved it off.

"You have questions. I will do my best to answer them. So ask."

"Dr von Schmidt-"

"Wilhelmina, please." she stated.

"Wilhelmina, what is this disease? And how the hell did I get it?" Harry asked.

"It's not a matter of 'getting it' so to speak." Wilhelmina replied, "Small amounts of copper are as essential as vitamins. Copper is present in most foods, and most people have much more copper than they need. Healthy people excrete unneeded copper but Wilson's Disease patients can't. 

Now, copper begins to accumulate immediately after birth. Excess copper attacks the liver or brain, resulting in hepatitis, psychiatric, or neurological symptoms which usually appear in late adolescence."

"Harry's almost forty years old and this is just now manifesting?" Draco wondered.

"As I said, Harry's a very powerful wizard. His immune system was very strong in his youth. I'm assuming that his absorption of some of Voldemort's favorite hexes may have weakened his immune system enough for the disease to make itself known. Some patients may start showing symptoms of jaundice, abdominal swelling, vomiting of blood, and abdominal pain. Some even have tremors and difficulty walking, talking and swallowing, like what you developed in your hands. They may even develop all degrees of mental illness including homicidal or suicidal behavior, depression, and aggression. No matter how the disease begins, it is always fatal if it is not diagnosed and treated. 

Now, as far as how you got it, it's a genetic disorder. Not like catching a common cold or the flu or some such nonsense. Wilson's Disease is an autosomal recessive disease, which means it is not sex-linked as in it occurs equally in men and women. In order to inherit it, both of ones parents must carry a gene that each passes to the affected child. Two abnormal genes are required to have the disease. At least one in 30,000 people of all races and nationalities have the disease."

She paused to take a sip of water before continuing on with her explanation.

"Most patients have no family history of Wilson's Disease. People with only one abnormal gene are called carriers. Carriers may have mild, but medically insignificant, abnormalities of copper metabolism. Carriers do not become ill and would not and should not be treated. It's probably why it was never discovered in your family, Mr Potter.

There are more than 200 different mutations of gene that causes this identified so far. While it has been difficult to devise a simple genetic screening test for Wilson's Disease, in a particular family, if the precise mutation is identified, a genetic diagnosis is possible by haplotype analysis. This requires a blood sample from both the patient and a relative and then the samples are compared to each other. Haplotype testing helps to find symptom-free siblings who have the disease so that they may be treated before they become ill. 

Now, I understand you have children?"

"Yes. Four of them, three boys and a girl." Draco answered

"We do have tests we can do that weren't in place years ago to help in genetic screening and prenatal diagnosis. If you'd like, we can test them to see if they are carriers. There is a 1 in 200 chance that they do, so those are very good odds in my book."

"Yes, we would." Draco nodded.

"Excellent. Any other questions?"

"Can you help me?" Harry asked. She waved him off.

"You've come to me for help and help you shall receive. Follow me, gentlemen." She got to her feet and lead the way out of the room. She lead them into an exam room where a nurse handed Harry a paper gown and pointed to a changing screen. Neither woman in the room looked like they were leaving. Resigned, he went to change before finding himself laid out on a table like a frog about to be dissected and studied.

As Draco looked on with an amused expression, Harry was poked, prodded, fondled, stroked, pinched, measured, had numerous diagnostic spells thrown at him and various potions shoved down his throat before he was allowed to change back into his own clothes.

They met the diminutive doctor back in her office.

"Mr Potter, as you know, Wilson's Disease attacks only two parts of your body. Your liver and your brain, sometimes both at the same time. While both of these are dangerous to ones health, it's not untreatable if detected in the right amount of time. If you were an ordinary muggle – you would not be sitting here right now."

"Is it that bad?" Harry asked, worriedly. Draco grasped his hand and held it tightly.

"I didn't say that. Most likely, you would have ended up in the hospital for a very long time. But you are a very powerful wizard, Mr Potter, and as such, we've caught the disease in the right amount of time."

"How so?" Draco wondered, feeling hopeful for the first time in months.

"The testing we did determined it's definitely affecting Mr Potter's liver and if we hadn't have caught it when we did, Mr Potter could have died within three or four years at the most. Ordinarily, he would have been dead within a few months."

Draco gulped and Harry looked a tad bit green.

"But, once we get you started on some medications, you can lead a normal and active life."

"How long will I have to take these?" Harry wondered.

"It will be for the rest of your life, I'm afraid. You need to understand that this disease isn't like muggle cancer. It can't go into remission, it can't disappear. And it can't be cured with magical potions."

"Surely with research-" Draco began.

"I've been studying and analyzing this with the best Potions Masters and Mistresses in the world, Mr Malfoy and we have yet to isolate a cure for this disease." she interrupted.

"Maybe you haven't spoken to the right ones." he hinted.

"And what exactly are you suggesting?"

"You should talk to Professor Severus Snape at Hogwarts. I'm sure he'd be willing to work with you." Draco replied. Dr von Schmidt nodded, making a note to speak with the man as soon as she was able.

"Now, back to the matter at hand. Mr Potter, there are several different medications we can use, most of them with some side effects, but we're going to start you on what we call Wilzin, which has no side effects at all. All it contains is a zinc acetate compound that will help lower and manage the copper levels in your liver."

"And I can go on with my life?"

"Provided you take your medication on a daily basis. If you forget a dosage, you could rapidly regress and that would not be a good thing." She glared at him for good measure and he blushed.

"His family will make sure he sticks to his medication." Draco nodded, squeezing Harry's hand.

"Then let's get this show on the road." she smiled.

_To be concluded in Part III..._

\- - -

**For more information about Wilson's Disease, please visit<http://www.wilsonsdisease.org>. All information about the disease mentioned in this chapter, including symptoms and medications comes directly from the website.**


	3. Part III: And Promises Kept

_One year later..._

Harry was used to being yelled at. It happened when he was growing up, it happened to him while he was in school and Draco yelled at him on almost a daily basis.

But this was beyond embarrassing.

"...and you promised all of us that you would stick to your schedule! Do you think I like coming home from school and seeing my own father passed out on the kitchen floor because he 'forgot' to take his medication all because he was 'weeding in the garden all afternoon'?"

Cedric was pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace as Harry lay prone on the couch. Tristan, Iliana and James were standing just behind their brother, all of them scowling at the raven-haired man on the couch.

This was the scene Draco walked in on when he arrived home from work.

"Well this isn't what I planned for the start of Christmas holidays." Draco smirked, leaning against the door frame. Harry removed the arm he had thrown across his eyes and stared at his husband.

"Call them off, Draco! Please!" Harry begged.

"I don't think so, Potter. If I can't keep you to your schedule then perhaps your children can. After all, they're all Slytherins in Gryffindor robes." Draco smirked, alluding to the fact that like their father before them, all four Malfoy-Potter offspring argued with the Sorting Hat to be placed in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin...except for James who didn't want to be stuck in Hufflepuff with the offspring of Ron Weasley and Lavender Brown (Ron's first wife).

"But I didn't mean to forget. You know how I am when I'm outside." Harry whined. Draco sat beside him and brushed a lock of hair off his forehead. He placed a kiss on the scar-free forehead.

"Harry, you've got to understand something. We – your children and your husband – want you around for a very long time. Don't you want to be able to walk Iliana down the aisle when she's ready to get married? Or hold Cedric's first child? Watch Tristan win a Quidditch World Cup? See James become Headmaster of Hogwarts? You can't do those things if you're stuck in St. Mungo's...or something much worse. We all want to take care of you for once, just as you've taken care of us all these years, and even in school when you protected your friends and family. Let us do this Harry, not just because we're your family. We want to do this because we love you." Draco smiled, placing a hand over Harry's heart. Harry felt the sting of tears and his vision blurred behind his glasses. Iliana, Tristan, Cedric and James knelt on the floor beside their fathers, placing their hands over Harry's and Draco's.

"We love you, Dad, so much and it would kill us if you weren't around anymore." James whispered.

"Please, Daddy. Don't let this disease take you away from us anymore than it already has." Iliana whispered into his ear, kissing his cheek.

Cedric and Tristan remained silent, expressing their love with their eyes. Harry closed his eyes and felt his tears sliding down his cheeks.

"What did I do to deserve such a wonderful family?" he asked, his voice clogged with emotion.

"Easy. You married Father." Tristan, who'd never told a joke a day in his life, deadpanned. There was an abrupt silence as everyone absorbed these words. Harry was the first one to break out into laughter, chuckling at first before it became a full-blown, gut-aching laugh. The rest of his family followed and Draco collapsed over his husband, chortling as only a Malfoy could.

For the sake of his family, Harry stuck to his schedule of medicines and his life went on for a very long time.

_~Fin!_


End file.
